WeekDAY Rations: Blueberry Cake

How it begins...

Sometimes when you work in an office like I do, surrounded by amazing home cooks and bakers, you're faced with a conundrum... Do I eat this delectable piece of yummy baked goodness in front of me now and possibly regret the calories later; or do I eat this now and enjoy the hell out of myself while  the yummy goodness is still available?

Lucky for my taste buds and general well-being, I choose the latter quite often. One day I walked into the break room to find a tupperware container full of 'Blueberry Cake' made by one of my co-workers.

What follows is the moist, sweet-but-not-too-sweet, nowhere-near-healthy recipe for this scrumptious bundt cake.

Blueberries have antioxidants, just remember that.

Blueberry cake, an efficient way to ingest a serving of fruit. ;)

MS. MARJORY'S BLUEBERRY CAKE
(as published in the St. Charles Parish employee newsletter)

INGREDIENTS

1 box yellow cake mix

3 eggs

3 tbsp. sugar

1 (8 oz.) package cream cheese, softened

1 stick of butter, melted

2 cups Louisiana blueberries

INSTRUCTIONS

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a bundt pan. Mix together cream cheese and eggs; beat well. Add butter and sugar. Add cake mix and mix well. Fold in blueberries. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes. Frost as desired when cooled.

In my humble opinion, this needs no frosting because it's just that good on its own...

Dessert Spotlight: Sucre

Sucre is a virtual wonderland of clean, genius branding and petite, gourmet dessert offerings.

I emphasize the "branding" aspect first, because it's the beautiful look of the store, the modern packaging and the gorgeous plate design that makes your brain think it's OK to spend $7 on a chocolate bar or $2 for a tiny French macaron.

Some of Sucre's macron options.

The Weekend Rations crew visited Sucre Lakeside on June 9 specifically for their awesome gelato. (Sucre is actually an all-in-one sweet shop / bakery / ice cream parlor / coffee house / designer dessert bar / chocolatier.)

Sucre's gelato case. NOM. Photo courtesy Sucre's Facebook page.

Just like everything else at Sucre, the display case is uber-enticing and colorful. They'll allow you to sample every flavor until you've found the right one; I know this because I asked if it could be done.

In the interest of self-control and portion-control, I got a small serving of the almond gelato. They serve it in a small plastic cup with a tiny plastic spoon / shovel type  eating instrument. This is clever because as you shove these small amounts of gelato into your face, it creates the illusion that you've eaten a lot more than you actually ordered. Which is great, because a small serving will set you back $3.75.

At least one of these flavors is inspired by a popular sno-ball.
Touche', Sucre, touche'.

I know it may be strange for me to say this about a food item from a place that sells almost exclusively dessert, but the thing I liked most about the almond gelato was that it wasn't very sweet. The almond flavor came through without a lot of "sucre" (sugar)! Every now and again I would get a crunch from bits of real almond in the gelato.

On a previous trip I tried the pistachio gelato, which was also a hit. (I'm thinking next trip I'm going to break out of the nut-centric gelato selection...) I probably give the pistachio a slight edge in the flavor department, since I like the actual pistachio taste better, and I just love green ice cream; I think it's funky.

Tyler, ever the chocolate fanatic, stuck with the triple dark chocolate gelato. Good for those who really dig chocolate flavor almost going over to the bitter side of things.

The things I had to go through for a free king cake!

Before I sign off I also want to mention that Sucre seems to be "with it" on the whole social media thing. And because of their smart social media promotions, I've actually gotten some free stuff from them.

Back during Mardi Gas season Tyler and I were on our way to the Jeff Dunham show at the New Orleans arena. While eating dinner what pops up on my Facebook news feed but a surefire way to win a Sucre king cake: Simply photograph yourself with any Sucre product, post the photo on their wall and walk into the store with proof that you'd done so. We walked into the Lakeside store, I took a photo standing next to a 'macaron tree,' posted it right then and there, and bam... I guess you can bet what we ate after the show!

On our latest visit, guests could get a free macaron just by checking in to the Sucre store on Facebook. I was darn well gonna take advantage of that. The chocolate macaron was yummy.

There's a lot to explore at Sucre, so I would suggest looking at the menu before you go to avoid buying one of everything. In particular, the fancy dessert plates ("entrements") look very interesting and are a must-try on future visits.

(By the way, all the food-safe glitter used on the desserts is actually called disco dust and can be bought online for home use... Then maybe you as well can charge $4.25 per cupcake!)

June 16, 2012: NOLA Restaurant

NOLA Restaurant in NOLA.

Ah, how great is the influence of Food Network in our daily lives? Without it, I would never have been introduced to just how great pork fat is, or that using the word 'BAM' during cooking somehow makes food taste better. (Thanks to the fact we used to watch "Emeril Live" religiously back when I was in high school.)

We don't know whether any exclamations were made during the preparation of our food today at NOLA, one of chef Emeril Lagasse's three restaurants in the Big Easy; but let's just say there were.

New Orleans Style Crab Cake with Spicy
Corn Relish and Crystal Butter Sauce.
Photo courtesy UrbanSpoon.

This was actually Tyler and my third time dining at NOLA, the first being for our first wedding anniversary in 2009 (same night the now-defunct Krewe of Boo rolled through the Quarter); the second being before we saw Lady Gaga on her "Monster Ball" tour at the New Orleans arena.

We sat in a secluded corner of the restaurant's first floor and filled up on an appetizer, three entrees and a dessert for under $80. Not too bad for a semi-fine-dining-tourist-trap restaurant such as NOLA. (Of course, these are lunch prices, too.)

Tyler is obsessed with crab cakes. Well, I say "obsessed." I probably mean... It's one of the few foods he likes across the board... I don't blame him, because how could any dish with the words "crab" and "cake" in the name be bad? So we ordered the 'New Orleans Style Crab Cake with Spicy Corn Relish and Crystal Butter Sauce.'

Considering how spicy the garnishes were, I can only imagine they meant 'Crystal (HOT SAUCE) Butter Sauce.' I'm not complaining. But it did have a very interesting, mustardy flavor. The bacon jam was intriguing, but the pungent mustard flavor kind of overpowered it. No bacon flavor for us. :(

The crab cake had a lot of crab meat in it, which is really the only requirement for a decent-tasting specimen. Tip for those in a group: This may be an $11 appetizer, but there's just one cake on that plate! Moving on...

Our entree selections included: Shrimp and Grits, the NOLA Burger and Grilled Atlantic Salmon.

Shrimp and Grits. Photo courtesy UrbanSpoon.

Tyler gave the burger two thumbs up... A good sign coming from the man who will order a burger at every restaurant conceivable as long as they offer one. It included house cut fries with parmesan cheese on top; I thought that was a great touch.

The Shrimp and Grits were delicious, obviously fattening and had great -- my new favorite word here -- "mouthfeel." It was like eating barbecue breakfast food because of the char on the jumbo shrimp. The crimini mushrooms cooked with applewood smoked bacon sitting in a well of cheddar grits... So amazing. Bacon and mushrooms are definitely a combination I'm going to try outside of a burger sometime soon.

For dessert there was the Warm Ooey Gooey Cake, sort of a mashup of chocolate cake, s'mores and macaroons. There were marshmallows, toasted coconut and coffee ice cream involved. It was completely rich and decadent. We split it three ways... (OK, I ate most of it...)

One other intriguing menu item for another time was a house salad that included marinated grape tomatoes, goat cheese, pistachios and balsamic vinaigrette. All these food items are on my top 100 foods in life list. (Well, I mean I'm sure they would be... The list has yet to be composed actually.) I am going to make this salad at home and report back...

"Milt, look a little happier!"

We had a great time goofing off in our corner of the restaurant as we usually do; and the parking situation to get to NOLA is very hassle-free for being in the Quarter. Park at the Omni Royal Hotel garage valet, then get your card validated. Simple! We were shocked by the number of tourists out today in the heat.

Now we're looking forward to the next adventure which happens to fall on Tyler's birthday weekend! Vote in our poll and let us know where we should eat next... Or leave your thoughts and suggestions in the comments.

(Disclaimer: Winning restaurant may or may not be vetoed by Tyler's actual birthday pick.)